Florida Statutes
Fla. Stat. § 742.031 (2025)
Hearings; court orders for support, hospital expenses, and attorney fees.
✓ 2025 Florida Statutes — current through the 2025 Regular Session
Find cases:
SyfertCases citing this section
FL-LEGleg.state.fl.us
JustiaFla. Statutes
CornellLII Search
CasesGoogle Scholar
742.031 Hearings; court orders for support, hospital expenses, and attorney fees.—
(1) Hearings for the purpose of establishing or refuting the allegations of the complaint and answer must be held in the chambers and may be restricted to persons, in addition to the parties involved and their counsel, as the judge in his or her discretion may direct. The court shall determine the issues of paternity of the child and the ability of the parents to support the child. Each party’s social security number must be recorded in the file containing the adjudication of paternity. If the court finds that the alleged father is the father of the child, it must so order. If appropriate, the court may order the father to pay the complainant, her guardian, or any other person assuming responsibility for the child moneys sufficient to pay reasonable attorney fees, hospital or medical expenses, cost of confinement, and any other expenses incident to the birth of the child and to pay all costs of the proceeding. Bills for pregnancy, childbirth, and scientific testing are admissible as evidence without requiring third-party foundation testimony and constitute prima facie evidence of amounts incurred for such services or for testing on behalf of the child. The court shall order either or both parents owing a duty of support to the child to pay support under chapter 61. The court must issue, upon motion by a party, a temporary order requiring child support for a minor child under s. 61.30 pending an administrative or judicial determination of parentage if there is clear and convincing evidence of paternity on the basis of genetic tests or other evidence. The court may also make a determination of an appropriate parenting plan, including a time-sharing schedule, in accordance with chapter 61.
(2) If a judgment of paternity contains only a child support award with no parenting plan or time-sharing schedule, the obligee parent shall receive all of the time-sharing and sole parental responsibility without prejudice to the obligor parent. If a paternity judgment contains no such provisions, the mother shall be presumed to have all of the time-sharing and sole parental responsibility.
(3) Pursuant to the federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, each party is required to provide his or her social security number in accordance with this section. Disclosure of social security numbers obtained through this requirement shall be limited to the purpose of administration of the Title IV-D program for child support enforcement.
(4)(a) A court may, upon good cause shown and without a showing of a substantial change of circumstances, modify, vacate, or set aside a temporary support order before or upon entering a final order in a proceeding.
(b) The modification of the temporary support order may be retroactive to the date of the initial entry of the temporary support order; to the date of filing of the initial petition for dissolution of marriage, petition for support, petition determining paternity, or supplemental petition for modification; or to a date prescribed in s. 61.14(1)(a) or s. 61.30(11)(c) or (17), as applicable.
History.—s. 3, ch. 26949, 1951; s. 1, ch. 59-45; s. 152, ch. 86-220; s. 18, ch. 88-176; s. 6, ch. 91-246; s. 1060, ch. 97-102; s. 68, ch. 97-170; s. 2, ch. 2004-47; s. 36, ch. 2008-61; s. 7, ch. 2023-213.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 83
cases (3 in the last 5 years), 1955–2025 · leading case: Mason v. Reiter, 564 So. 2d 142 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990).
Mason v. Reiter, 564 So. 2d 142 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990). “5th DCA 1982); § 742.031, Fla. Stat. (1987). In assessing each parent's ability to pay, the court may consider the father's and mother's monthly salaries, as well as any property and assets owned by either of them.”
Florida Patient's Comp. Fund v. Rowe, 472 So. 2d 1145 (Fla. 1985). “(1983) (credit discrimination actions); § 742.031, Fla. Stat. (1983) (paternity determinations); § 376.”
Stewart v. Walker, 5 So. 3d 746 (Fla. 4th DCA 2009). “§ 742.031(2), Fla. Stat. In this case, the father had been temporarily granted visitation by a Massachusetts court, so the mother was the parent with primary residential care and custody pursuant to the first sentence of section 742.”
Starkey v. Linn, 723 So. 2d 333 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998). “The trial court asked Linn whether she was requesting fees under section 742.031 or section 742.045. Linn specifically adopted section 742.”
State Dept. of Health, Etc. v. West, 378 So. 2d 1220 (Fla. 1979). “Section 742.031 provides in pertinent part: The court shall determine the issues of paternity of the child, and the ability of the parents and each of them to support the child and if the court shall find the defendant to be the father of the child he shall so order and shall…”
Barron v. Florida Freedom Newspapers, Inc., 531 So. 2d 113 (Fla. 1988). “(1987); paternity, § 742.031, Fla. Stat. (1987); juvenile proceedings, § 39.”
Rados v. Rados, 791 So. 2d 1130 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001). “[3] See also § 742.031(1), Fla.Stat. (1999) (permitting court to require father to pay reasonable attorney's fees "if appropriate").”
White v. Means, 280 So. 2d 20 (Fla. 1st DCA 1973). “The sole question presented for our determination in this appeal is whether that court erred in denying her motion for an attorney's fee and costs "in conformity with the provisions" of Section 742.031, Florida Statutes, F.S.A.”
Herrero v. Pearce, 571 So. 2d 96 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990). “Appellant contends that section 742.031, Florida Statutes (1987), mandates that a father must pay a prevailing plaintiff's attorney's fees and that, because her claim for back child support can be easily calculated, she is entitled to pre-judgment interest.”
Carlyon v. Weeks, 387 So. 2d 465 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980). “We reject Weeks' challenge to the amount of the award of attorney's fee which is authorized by Section 742.031, Florida Statutes (1973).”
Wollschlager v. Veal, 601 So. 2d 274 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992). “Section 742.031, Florida Statutes (1989), relied on by appellant to support his argument, states that [t]he court shall order either or both parents owing a duty of support to the child to pay support as from the circumstances of the parties is equitable.”
Miami Herald Publ'g Co. v. Collazo, 329 So. 2d 333 (Fla. 3d DCA 1976). “, (adoption proceedings); § 742.031, Fla. Stat., F.S.A., (bastardy proceedings).”
— 742.031(1) — 18 cases
Rados v. Rados, 791 So. 2d 1130 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001). “[3] See also § 742.031(1), Fla.Stat. (1999) (permitting court to require father to pay reasonable attorney's fees "if appropriate").”
Scariti v. Sabillon, 16 So. 3d 144 (Fla. 4th DCA 2009).
Sanchez v. Fernandez, 915 So. 2d 192 (Fla. 4th DCA 2005).
R.H.B. v. J.B.W., 826 So. 2d 346 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002).
KR v. Dept. of Child. & Families, 784 So. 2d 594 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001).
— 742.031(2) — 2 cases
Stewart v. Walker, 5 So. 3d 746 (Fla. 4th DCA 2009). “§ 742.031(2), Fla. Stat. In this case, the father had been temporarily granted visitation by a Massachusetts court, so the mother was the parent with primary residential care and custody pursuant to the first sentence of section 742.”
Adams v. Shiver, 890 So. 2d 1199 (Fla. 1st DCA 2005).
— 742.031(3) — 3 cases
Amendments to the Florida Fam. Law Rules of Procedure & Fam. Law Forms, 810 So. 2d 1 (Fla. 2000).
Amendments to the Florida Fam. Law Rules, 713 So. 2d 1 (Fla. 1998).
Amendments to the Florida Fam. Law Forms, 759 So. 2d 583 (Fla. 1999).
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.